NBC News reports a senior law enforcement official confirmed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation is now underway.
MINNEAPOLIS — A day after The New York Times reported federal immigration officials would launch an operation targeting Minnesota’s Somali community, the mission began.
NBC News told KARE 11 on Wednesday morning that a senior law enforcement official confirmed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation is now underway.
The news comes after Twin Cities leaders, including both Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors, held a press conference Tuesday in response to The Times’ report, pushing back on the federal government’s stance on the deportation of immigrants and refugees.
The Minnesota branch of the nonprofit Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) held a press conference from its offices in south Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon.
Beforehand, Executive Director Jaylani Hussein referred to President Trump’s disparaging remarks about immigration in recent days, saying, “These statements do not exist in a vacuum.”
“We are here yet again, after President Trump has now, almost every single day, targeted the Somali American community,” Hussein said from the press conference.
“… The ICE raids will be actually used as a weapon to terrorize the community, but not actually even do what they claim to be doing.”
The press conference also included remarks from Michelle Garnett-McKenzie, executive director of The Advocates for Human Rights.
“Individuals should be accountable for actions they commit, but no one should be punished for an act they did not commit,” she said.
“Group reprisals, as Jaylani said, violate basic human rights principles of due process and equal protection. They violate the things that we hold most dear in this country, and the toxic rhetoric that’s being weaponized right now against Somalis — in Minnesota in particular — and in different ways against different groups right now, is truly advancing an agenda that is bent on ending America’s commitment to humanitarian protections.”
In recent days, the Trump administration has launched a particularly targeted attack on Somali immigrants in Minnesota, which contains the largest Somali population in the United States.
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Trump said, “They contribute nothing.”
“Somalians, ripped off that state … They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump said. “I’ll be honest with you. Somebody (can) say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter fired back at the president, telling Somali Minnesotans, “we stand with you.
“For decades, the Somali community has added greatly to our city,” said Frey. “The economic fabric, their hard work, their leadership — it has made Minneapolis a better place.”
Carter added, “We call on ourselves, I call on myself, in the face of hatred, in the face of division, in the face of what seems to be a strategy centered around intentional chaos, to lead with listening, to lead with compassion, to engage with humanity and to ensure that we are every single day, modeling the type of behavior, the type of approach, the type of humanity we sure wish our federal representatives in Washington, D.C. would follow suit.”
Also on Tuesday, GOP Majority Whip, Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer appeared to voice approval of the federal immigration actions with a post on X. Emmer wrote “Good” in reference to a post by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt linking to a Fox News article saying Border Czar Tom Homan would enforce immigration laws in Minneapolis and St. Paul “without apology” over the opposition of the mayors.
In the last 24 hours, local officials have repeatedly reminded both immigrants and their neighbors of their rights when it comes to dealing with local and federal law enforcement agencies, which you can find through various resources, including:
This is a developing story. More details will be added as they become available.